Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by RGA (R) on December 17, 2018 at 08:12:19

In Reply to: RE: Not to draw this out unnecessarily. . . posted by Chris from Lafayette on December 15, 2018 at 11:19:03

The girl in red was pronounced in the book and since it's a book there is no colour versus black and white.

If the real Oscar Schindler in fact saw a girl in a red coat and this was his pivotal moment of decision to act - then it's rather a vital part of the book - and if you make a black and white film - there is no way to see Red without using red. It was not the only colour scene in the film anyway - there was a candle scene where the candle was in colour as well.

And since this scene is one of the most remembered by people who loved the movie - often chosen as a cover - well perhaps Steven was fortunate to follow Keneally's novel.

Spielberg filmed in black and white because Spielberg felt the "film should be drained of colour to reflect the draining of life during the holocaust."

To me it's a strength of film making when he can represent all the children of the holocaust and their slaughter in mere minutes in high impact while at the same time providing a possible motivation for Schindler all without a single word of dialog or narrative explanation.

The first 4 minutes of this video has the explanation of why that scene is in the movie - And you can really only debate these things. Spielberg had a valid reason to do it - I think it worked and unfortunately - if it was an art house director who did it I suspect no one would say anything about it - but like in audio people have lots of expectation bias.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTLCE2JRPkY   (Open in New Window)